Anti-Bush fervor fuels Dem victory

University students helped douse the nation's electoral map with a fresh splash of blue paint yesterday, in an election that saw Democrats seize the House of Representatives and chip away at GOP control of a Senate that appeared poised early Wednesday morning for a one-seat Democratic majority.

Democrats easily picked up the minimum 15 seats they needed to take control of the House for the first time since 1994, with TV networks projecting 226 Democratic seats so far, compared to 190 for the Republicans and 19 undecided. The Senate still hung in the balance as of press time, with two cliffhanger races in Virginia and Montana lacking a clear victor.

House Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who will become the first woman Speaker of the House, hailed the election as a "great victory for the American people. The American people voted for a new direction." The election was also marked by electronic voting machine woes in several states, with a number of voters forced to use provisional paper ballots. The situation possibly reinforced the warnings of University computer science professor Ed Felten, who recently critiqued the security features of some of those machines.

Close to home, campus votes appeared to have tilted Democratic, as students watching the election returns in Frist Campus Center greeted news of liberal victories with shouts of approval and bursts of applause. (Related: Read our election blog.)

Blue-tinged student votes helped catapult Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to victory over Republican Tom Kean, Jr. by a statewide margin of eight percentage points, with Princeton's Mercer County residents supporting Menendez by an overwhelming 22 percentage points. Voters in Princeton Borough's District 1 also reelected Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) over Republican challenger Joseph Sinagra by a wide margin.

College Democrats campaign coordinator Cindy Hong '09 said student support for left-of-center candidates was "not surprising because this campus is overwhelmingly Democratic, despite popular perceptions." College Democrats worked at polling places as "poll watchers," watching for suspicious behavior, and engaged in last minute door-to-door canvassing and phone-banking.

"I think the election is more of a reaction against Republicans than a mandate for Democratic values," Hong added.

College Republicans president Alexander Maugeri '07, who is also a 'Prince' associate editor, said Democratic gains stemmed largely from dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq.

"I think the Democratic victory in the House unfortunately represents the Democrats' success in making the election about Iraq," he said, "which is unfortunate, considering that a lot of very talented congressmen and congresswomen who represented the interests of their constituents were ousted from office."

Maugeri also noted the moderate platforms of several of yesterday's Democratic victors, such as Pennsylvania's pro-life Bob Casey, who defeated three-term incumbent Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) by a significant margin.

"This isn't a governing coalition," he said. "The far left of the Democratic party has been totally repudiated."

In addition to Casey's victory, Democrats wrested Republican Senate seats in three other states, with Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse defeating incumbent Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown triumphing over Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) and Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill ousting incumbent Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.).

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In Connecticut's closely watched race between Democrat Ned Lamont and Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), who ran as an Independent, Lieberman eked out a victory. Lamont received national attention earlier this year when he harnessed blogosphere support to defeat Lieberman in the Democratic primary.

Wilson School professor Nolan McCarty said yesterday's results foretell few significant policy changes in Congress in the near future, with legislative actions remaining "pretty much in a holding pattern" until the 2008 presidential election.

"Anything very controversial will be vetoed or filibustered," he said of prospects for Democratic policy proposals. "The Democrats just won't have the votes to overcome that."

McCarty also noted that many of the defeated GOP incumbents, such as Chafee, "were moderate to liberal Republicans in the Northeast who might have voted for some of the Democratic legislative agenda," so the Democrats will have to contend with "not only a slim majority, but a Republican minority that is more solidly conservative than it was before."

The most significant changes stemming from the election, McCarty said, will be the Democrats' increased ability to oversee the executive branch through their newfound subpoena power and control of Congressional committees. They will also be able to prevent extension of President Bush's tax cuts in 2010, he said, leading to compromises on spending and "opportunities to do something about the budget deficit."

Meanwhile, back on campus, student voter registration group P-Votes set up tables in the U-Store courtyard and Cafe Vivian yesterday, luring potential last-minute election participants with T-shirts and pizza.

The most frequent comment from students who passed the stations, co-chair Kris Ekdahl '07 said, was, " 'Shoot, I forgot to vote — how late are the polls open?' " Princetonian Contributor Rachel Dunn contributed reporting.